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The Universalist Church of Westfield Center, dedicated 1849, on the village green.
The 1849 Universalist Church on the Westfield Center green. Its founding minutes recorded the 1849 death of Eber Mallory — the man who broke the first ground in Westfield Township on April 2, 1817. Photo by Nyttend, via Wikimedia Commons. Released into the public domain.

Local History · From Westfield Township

April 2, 1817 — the first axes on Campbell's Creek

Nine years before the village existed, two families reached the west bank of Campbell's Creek and became Westfield Township's first permanent residents. Their year in the woods was hard, occasionally comic, and produced the township's first births.

Published 2026-08-05 · 3 min read

Nine years before there was a village on the Westfield Center green, two wagon-borne New England families reached the west bank of Campbell's Creek in the western half of what is now Westfield Township. They became the township's first permanent residents.1

A scout named James Chapman had felled the first tree ever cut by a settler in the township the year before, in 1816. On April 2, 1817, Hanmer Palmer and Eber Mallory came back with their families to occupy the lots west of Campbell's Creek. Later that same year, Dr. Richard Morton, John J. and Jane Morton, Benjamin P. Morton and wife, Timothy Nye and wife, Richard Marshall and wife, Joseph S. Winston and wife, and Isaac Ford all joined them.2

The first birth in the township came the same year: Fanny, daughter of John J. and Jane Morton. She later married Hiram Kellogg and moved to Michigan. The first male born was Henry Thorndyke Mallory in April 1818, son of Eber and Jemima Mallory. His middle name honored Henry Thorndyke, the absentee landowner who owned the western third of the township. Thorndyke reciprocated the honor with a gift of Lot No. 15 on the west bank of Campbell's Creek.3

In October 1817, Hanmer Palmer walked to Isaac Ford's cabin in the southern part of the township and lost the trail after dark. He called out. Ford, hearing the calls from a distance, mistook them for a panther's cries and barred his door for the night. Palmer built a ring of fires and stayed up until dawn afraid of wolves.4

Summer 1818 brought the first school, taught by Jerusha Hosmer in John J. Morton's home about fifty rods east of what is now Friendsville. The first pupils, all named in Perrin's account: Alfred, Theron, and Melissa Hamilton; Lewis and Alonzo Nye; Clarissa and Charles Mallory; Charlotte, Jane, and Sherwood Palmer; Eliza, Lucy, and Lorenzo Brainard; Betsey Stark.5

Eber Mallory, the first man to break ground in the township, was killed by a rolling log on August 7, 1849. His death was recorded in the minutes of the Universalist Church a few doors down on the Westfield Center green. That building is still standing on the same square.

Footnotes

  1. Township organization and land ownership. Perrin 1881, pp. 595-596. Original ownership: Henry Thorndyke of Portage County (western third) and James Fowler of Westfield, Massachusetts (eastern two-thirds).
  2. April 2, 1817 arrival of Palmer and Mallory; other 1817 families. Perrin 1881, pp. 596-597 and Westfield Township timeline.
  3. First birth Fanny Morton; first male birth Henry Thorndyke Mallory. Perrin 1881, p. 597 and Westfield Township timeline. Thorndyke's reciprocal gift of Lot 15 is on the same source.
  4. October 1817 lost-in-the-woods incident. Perrin 1881, p. 601.
  5. 1818 first school; teacher Jerusha Hosmer; named pupils. Perrin 1881, pp. 599-600. Direct list.

Sources

Every named person and date comes from Perrin 1881. Campbell's Creek still flows through the township. Friendsville, the hamlet where the 1818 school was located, is still on the map.

Medina Homes Guide · Verified 2026-08-05